The present invention is a turbine type wind energy converter and more particularly a wind driven turbine having a frontal air inlet and air outlets between side-by-side circumferentially distributed blades.
Wind turbines incorporating a rotor with side-by-side blades about an interior region into which air is introduced for release between blades to drive the rotor have been disclosed in prior patents issued to Elmo E. Aylor, namely U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,523 issued Nov. 1, 1988 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,619 issued Jun. 20, 1995 in each of which the rotor is supported on a central shaft about which it rotates. In a co-pending application Ser. No. 08/417,813 a similarly related rotor has been disclosed which is supported on rollers in a base region and having excessive pressure release gates in the back wall which rotate with the rotor and are operated with the assistance of centrifugal force.
The turbine may optionally have a central shaft at its axis not for support of the rotor but adaptable for takeoff of power from the rotor. However, as the diameter of the rotor increases to large sizes, for example to a diameter of 60 to 80 feet, the torque at the central shaft will reach enormous and less practical magnitudes while the rotational speed of the rotor diminishes by a given horsepower output.
Although the angular speed of rotation of a large diameter turbine may be less than that of a small diameter turbine receiving the same fluid power input, the linear outer peripheral speeds of the large diameter rotor are comparable to the outer peripheral speed of the smaller diameter turbine receiving the same fluid power input.